Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Plague 2: Infectious Boogaloo

So sometimes apparently “turning the corner” really just means “starting the U-turn”.

Just when the kids were seemingly back in the pink, and my wife was over a bout of conjunctivitis, along comes the flu and … well, lands squarely on my wife, pretty much. So far (knock every available square inch of wood) she is playing the human shield for the rest of us, as the kids were both healthy enough to head to daycare today and happy to do it, and I made it to work with minimal complaints. My wife managed to secure the morning off for herself, but she was planning on making a go of it in the afternoon, which I believe is a combination of her genuinely feeling better and the fact that she hates feeling sick and anything that reminds her of being sick.

This latest malady began Sunday night, when we were headed home after a pleasantly sociable evening over at the house of some friends. My wife was feeling particularly worn down so I advised her to let me drive home and worry about getting the little guy transferred from car to bed while she saw to her own needs. It was a good plan as far as it went and we followed it to the letter, but by the next morning it was undeniable that it was going to be an unpleasant sick day for my better half. Which, funny enough, turned out to be one of those good news/bad news kind of things. The good news was that even though it was a Monday, I was around to lend a hand. When we had looked ahead at the calendar some time ago we had agreed that it made sense for me to use a floating holiday on Columbus Day, so that my wife and I could spend it together (since Mondays are always her days off). So I didn’t have to feel the slightest guilt or panic about calling out from work, as I had previously cleared the holiday anyway. The bad news was, so much for our spending the day together. I did some shopping, cooked some meals, tended to the kids as best I could (still don’t quite have the hang of that lactating thing), and generally kept the house from falling down while my wife spent most of the day in bed recuperating. At least the fact that it was Columbus Day allowed us to make some good jokes about smallpox-infused blankets and whatnot, but seriously, any day where the highlight is smallpox gags is kind of a rough day.

One of these days there will be other things in my life to talk about besides who is currently sick with what and how far from recovery they are! But considering that my wife and I share a bed, our little guy loves nothing more than climbing all over us (except possibly being picked up and showering us with adorable affection) and our little girl spends most of her awake time either nursing or playing in one of our laps … I’m not really sure how any of us are going to get off this crazy carousel of contagion any time soon.